More on Tom Wolfe

Today's New York Times has an amusing story about President Bush and his reading list, which includes Tom Wolfe's "I Am Charlotte Simmons" (which I previously wrote about below). Apparently the president has taken to reading Wolfe's new novel, and Times reporter Elizabeth Bumiller speculates as to why he might like it. Is it because it may remind Dubya of his days when he was a fraternity president, like Vance in "Charlotte"? Or may it enable him to better comprehend the world of his recently graduated twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna? I think that part of the reason is because it's a good read -- and it doesn't hurt that Wolfe is one of the nation's leading conservative literary voices.

Our president has been bastinadoed (in some cases, rightly so) for being a bit too hoi polloi for the highbrows. He is a former owner of a major-league baseball team. He is a jock/frat-boy type. One of his other favorite books that wasn't mentioned in the Times article was Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. But then again, Natan Sharansky's The Case For Democracy wasn't mentioned either. Democrats should realize that the problem with dealing with Dubya is that he isn't dense; he's devious.